Friday, August 11, 2017

CFP: Social Histories of Neoliberalism

In light of the deep connections between social history and legal history, this Call for Papers may be of interest:

Social Histories of Neoliberalism: CFP for Special Issue of the Journal of Social History

What
does the history of neoliberalism look like from the bottom-up? In
recent years, historians have identified the 1970s and the 1980s as the
dawning of a new era in global political economy. Its contours are
complex and contradictory: old modes of production have been disrupted
by technological transformations, new forms of financialization, and a
shifting global geography of work; state regulation of the economy has
been rolled back and delegitimized; the emergence of social movements
committed to new forms of freedom has been accompanied by new forms of
coercion and policing. While intellectual, economic, and political
historians have begun to sketch the “commanding heights” of these
transformations, we know far less about the lived experience of these
important developments. And while these transformations in political
economy were clearly global in their implications, our narratives of
these years remain largely centered on the U.S. and Western Europe.

The Journal of Social History
is preparing a special issue devoted to exploring the history of
neoliberalism at the grass-roots, the margins, and the periphery.
“Social Histories of Neoliberalism” will feature articles revealing the
lived experience of recent economic and political transformations from a
variety of ignored locations around the world. We are particularly
interested in articles that use empirically grounded case-studies to
illuminate or challenge accounts of macro-level historical change, or
that deploy or interrogate theoretical categories in innovative ways.
And we are very open to transnational or comparative approaches that
seek to unite the study of more than one geographic location
(particularly non-Western locations). But we are deliberately leaving
our terms open and our definitions broad. “Social Histories of
Neoliberalism” is intended to draw together a variety of articles that
would not otherwise be placed in dialogue and, in so doing, help to
define and inspire new approaches to the history of these important
decades.

Please send a cv and an abstract of no more than 600
words to Sam Lebovic (slebovic[at]gmu.edu) by September 1. Articles
selected for inclusion in the volume will be due by March 15, 2018, and
will then be sent out for peer review.